Category: travel

i leave for China today. today! it is absolutely crazy. i’ve been packing, getting rid of old clothes, catching up, hugging, chatting… all these things while i get myself sorted for China.

it has been such a long time coming which i think is why it still feels very surreal. this is literally two years in the making, and there have been so many challenges and items to tick off between the thought and the reality. and now it’s here.

you can imagine that i have been having all the deep thoughts about this. as i said to my mum, going to China does feel like the end of my childhood. i know that a lot of things will have changed by the time i come back and that is of course good, and life, but is still hard to wrap my head around.

and then there is all my aspirations for my time in China itself. relationships, academic, language (my oh my do i want to get fluent after 8+ years of language learning!), travel, new experiences… goodness gracious.

with all these thoughts swimming around my head, i consulted my sweet, wise friends. i wanted to know what advice they would give their younger self before leaving home and going to university. while this isn’t my first rodeo, so to speak, i felt like everything that applied to undergrad and different city, would also apply to postgrad and different country. here is what they had to say:

Take a deep breath, put on a smile and go out of your room! The best way to be interesting is to be interested – ask questions! Be kind. Everyone you meet is going through a big time of change and everyone is as nervous as you are! Just try to relax and you’ll find your groove with time.

Don’t go into papers with preconceived ideas of how hard it might be. Starting a paper where the lecturer tells you “half of the class will fail this paper” means that you believe it is impossibly hard when actually if you start with an open mind, it might be okay. With a bit of patience and focus right from the start, you might be surprised that you can do it – rather than putting it off all semester only to find it isn’t as hard as you thought but it is too late to get better than an okay mark for the paper.

As time goes by, whenever anything hard happened or I was feeling homesick, or sick of uni generally, I would count the friends and experiences that I would never of had if I hadn’t made the choice I did to leave home and move to Dunedin and that would quickly assure me it had been one of the best decisions of my life.

And make sure your parents are well schooled on what a top notch care package entails! – Clara

My advice to pre-uni or pre-exchange self would be to trust myself more. In really different circumstances with lots of change or other languages or new people, it can get very overwhelming and it was super important for me to realise I was my own best support. You’re you! And you really do know how to look after yourself, whether that means having another coffee or putting flowers in the kitchen or any little thing at all – making small changes to help you feel better can cause a massive shift in how confident and brave you feel over all. Trust yourself! – Madeleine

It’s really exciting to move to a new city so I think an important thing to do is really make the most of the opportunity that you’ve been given! Chances are, you probably haven’t spent or seen too much of the new place you are moving to so I think it’s really cool to get to know the new place you’ve moved to! It’s the perfect excuse to eat out at cafes and explore all the attractions your city has to offer. It’s even better if you do it with others – can be a great way to make new friends because after all, your friends become your family when you are living away from home so it’s really important to build some strong connections and relationships!! You don’t always have to do really “touristy” things either – discover the little things in your new city and become a true local! – Nileesha

wow. aren’t i so ridiculously lucky to count these wise ladies as dear friends!

i’m in wanaka at the moment, which is definitely rates very highly in the nz pretty places list, but i wanted to backtrack to a day trip i took in the midst of exams with my very dear clara and jess.

we all had a significant break between exams which we wanted to exploit to do some adventuring, and the catlins topped our little bucket list.

a quick geographical representation of where all these towns i talk about situate themselves in nz:

^^going anticlockwise, we have Christchurch, Timaru, Oamaru, Dunedin, the Catlins, Invercargill and Wanaka^^

the catlins, of course, are that picture the very lowest on the map, and are a drive down the east coast from dunedin.

our top picks to see were:

the purakaunui falls

nugget point + lighthouse

the mclean falls

and we were more than content to allow for any other serendipitous occurrences on our way, which included a sheep traffic jam (only in NZ), a visit to a kitsch café with an alarming amount of frog figurines, a donkey sighting, teapot land (oh gosh) and two more waterfalls.

1. i had the best weekend in queenstown! first things first: skiing- i started at a very low point: fell over getting off the chairlift, then again like 2 secs later on the snow, and ended up being on the chairlift back down the mountain (so embarrassing!) however, the day only improved from then on. I first reminded myself how to ski again via my old friend the magic carpet, which was then followed by quite a few jollies down the next step up ‘the big easy’. i worked my way down from falling over 4 times on my first go to a big fat zero by the afternoon!

i have to say i was feeling quite exasperated and fed up earlier on in the day when i felt like the biggest fail!! but after giving myself a pep talk while riding the magic carpet (which included “you’re pretty uncoordinated, the only sport you’ve ever been very good at is cross country running, which literally requires you to do something all humans can naturally do, so why would you be really good at skiing first off?”) and keeping my expectations nice and low (“ok, goal for this run is to only fall over twice!”) i felt much happier. by the end of the day i was having the best time, feeling really proud of myself and even navigating the chairlifts with ease! mission succeeded. so hopefully the next time i go skiing i will look a bit cooler or at least not make quite as much of a fool of myself. time will tell.

2. Queenstown has awesome nightlife and saturday night was no exception!! winnie’s and chico’s are always a good time, and its fun to see such a mix of people out – much more so than just the students in dunedin.

3. We didn’t ski on the sunday as the weather wasn’t as good and we were tired from the night before. we spent a cruisey morning and midday hanging out in queenstown, enjoying yummy coffee and baking from the always-fantastic vudu cafe, and the boys enjoyed devil burger for lunch (ferg’s competitor). we headed back to dunedin at 3pm, and by then the weather had cleared up and it was a gloriously sunny day which made the drive very enjoyable as we marvelled at the stunning scenery. central otago is just the most beautiful place – i can never get enough and always feel sad when it’s time to leave! we arrived back in dunedin around quarter to 7, and we all hustled off to bed pretty quickly after that!

4. i’m running again yay! however, 6 weeks of no exercise means that i can barely run for 5 mins without feeling tired and out of breath – the physio advised me to start off doing 5 mins running, 5 mins walking, etc and i tell you, the end of the 300 seconds of running cannot come soon enough! Pretty gutted as the chances of me doing the half marathon in September that i was planning on are looking very slim, but slow and steady wins the race (i’m defs the tortoise at the moment) and you know, I have the rest of my life to do a half marathon!

5. It was my mum’s birthday yesterday! a year and a day ago i was sneaking off to christchurch to surprise her – hoping that she didn’t expect the same this year as my non-arrival won’t be quite as nice a surprise ;) she is so very wonderful and my favourite person alive. I love you mummy! (yes, i call her mummy, deal with it bro)

6. I’m off to a couple of films in the nz international film festival- our little sister and city of gold, and i have high hopes for them both! i usually try to go to chinese or french speaking ones (you know, so i can pretend i understand them while really just reading the subtitles) but none of them stood out to me much in this year’s selection. don’t worry, i’ll report back with bells on – they might even get their own post!

7. i just got new black jeans (my old pair was getting very holey along the seams so no longer wearable) and, in the words of zoë foster blake, feel slicker than a rat with a gold tooth! i got mid rise vegas as riders are always a really good fit on my body and am pleased as punch with them.

hi gals and pals, welcome to the new series on blooming anna, in which i document the time i travel somewhere cool (a rare occurrence, so i thought i’d better make the most of it ;)

so i don’t know if spending this (and every) summer in wanaka qualifies as travel, but this my blog and i make the rules! #hardcore haha but anyway, i’m going to shamelessly milk it for content at any rate.

for those of you who haven’t been to wanaka (poor babies), it is a town in the Central Lakes region in the South Island of New Zealand, which is centred around the stunning Lake Wanaka. what’s more, it boasts stunning mountains and two ski fields nearby.

it is my favourite place in the whole entire world and i am so very lucky that my grandparents let us stay in their holiday house there. seeing as we moved six times over the course of my childhood (my dad was in the air force), it was a constant for me, and i just couldn’t imagine summer without wanaka – the two are intertwined in my mind.

wanaka does get it’s fair share of tourists over the summer and winter months, but it has maintained the small town, friendly, community feel. it’s neighbour Queenstown is similar in terms of scenery and landscape, but i much prefer the feel of wanaka – Qtown has a commercial feel due to the much larger volumes of tour groups and buses…. then again the nightlife there is fantastic, so it’s a tossup!

^^the mighty clutha – not photoshopped – the water IS that blue^^
here are some of my favourite things to eat and do in beautiful wanaka:

eating and drinking:

The Federal Diner
This is a terribly groovy cafe on one of wanaka’s main streets. they make beautiful coffee with yummy emporio beans, fantastic breakfast and lunch food, and their ‘world famous in wanaka’ scones, of which you can choose cheese or date. (date all the way!!)
My favourite dish = rock it salad – rocket leaves, nectarine, toasted almonds, goats cheese, prosciutto and balsamic dressing. food of the gods! and a tulip flat white is essential.

Urban Grind
this is also super central – not hard to do seeing as there’s like 4 streets of shops in wanaka. anyway, i love coming to urban grind for coffee! the man who started it up reportedly couldn’t find a coffee in town he rated, so he decided to make his own cafe! while service isn’t always consistent, the coffee is good, the hot chocolates are served with a whittakers sante bar (amazing!) and the smoothies are amazing.
favourite = tulip flat white and an orange sticky bun (pricy, but delish).

Red Star Burgers
red star burgers make the most monster, gourmet burgers ever! step aside velvet burger and burger fuel, these are truly enormous. take away and eat on the shores of the lake.
favourite = BBQ beef with fresh pineapple – and a side of their scrumptious kumara chips to share (you won’t need them, but you’ll want them!)

Francesca’s Italian Kitchen
This is a fairly new addition to the wanaka scene for the old guard like me ;) but speedily became one of the favourites! They make incredible pizza, pasta and antipasto and the restaurant itself is beautiful. it is very hard to stop at one of their ultimate gin and tonics if you are a g&t gal like me!
Favourite dish = any! the mushroom pizza or the pear and blue cheese are both divine.

activities:

paradiso cinema
have you ever wanted the atmosphere and large screen of a cinema, with the snuggly couch and warm cookies of your home? paradiso is for you! a veritable institution in wanaka, which boasts comfy old sofas for seats, an intermission at half time for freshly baked, bigger than your head cookies, and more! a holiday to wanaka is incomplete without a visit to paradiso – we went last night to Exodus and i, as always, loved it.
favourite thing = free water and warm chocolate chip cookies- yum!

Stand up paddleboarding
i only did this for the first time the other day, and it is fantastic! when you fancy yourself a bit of a local, it can hold you back from doing ‘touristy’ activities which was such a mistake in this case. paddle boarding is brilliant! and i’m not just saying that because i was surprisingly good at it for someone with generally appalling balance. you stand up on these huge surfboard shaped boards, with one paddle that you manoeuvre yourself around with. great fun, and a nice alternative to kayaking.

horse trekking
horse trekking isn’t something i do all the time in wanaka, because it is expensive, but it is super super fun and enjoyable if you like that kind of thing! the landscape and countryside you ride through is breathtaking.
i went through a deeply embarrassing horse phase from the ages of 5 – 10 in which i read saddle club and other such literature religiously, nibbled the field at school with my fellow horse enthusiasts and groomed the arms of the sofa with the grooming kit my parents friends kindly gifted me. oh man. my family took pity on me and i was given horse treks for christmas about 3 years in a row, which i just adored. don’t worry, they’re still fun even when you’re not a colour coordinated 9 year old (i guess..;)

ps- there really is no bad time to visit- in summer swimming and boating on the lake, in autumn walks amongst the spectacular tawny poplars, in winter amazing skiing/snowboarding….

hi gals and pals, welcome to the new series on blooming anna, in which i document the time i travel somewhere cool (a rare occurrence, so i thought i’d better make the most of it ;)

la raison d’être of my trip to the mighty AKL was to go to the rolling stones concert with my brother. he got tickets for his birthday last year, and after exhausting about 5 different options, finally got down the list to me…first choice, i was not ;)

but in all seriousness, it was truly so kind of him to take me, and we had a marvellous time. they’re not my favourite band, but i think you would have to be a. deaf b. blind or c. both not to enjoy them – they were truly incredible, absolute showmen. and since they are quite old now it is so clear that they aren’t touring and continuing to make this amazing music for money or fame or whatever, it’s for the love of it and each other. and holy moly does mick jagger ooze charisma, i fell a little bit in love with him with each song.

i especially enjoyed ronnie’s ciggy he held between his fingers while strumming, we counted about five of them throughout the concert! as i said to will, i can’t play the guitar let alone play in front of over 30,000 people while holding a burning object between my fingers, it surely takes a LOT of skill. mad respect over here ;)
ps – did i mention we were almost the youngest people there? sea of grey, kids ;)

as for the rest of the weekend in auckland-

we breakfasted at Domain & Ayr in Parnell on saturday, and just loved it. it was the product of a cheeky iPhone google “best cafes auckland” and came up fifth on one list. it had a very cool vibe, beautiful food and coffee, and i think was quite fair trade/organic friendly. they also offered rice milk along with soy for coffee, which is quite rare in NZ.
i had granola with vanilla bean buffalo yogurt and a rhubarb lavender compote – to die for! and a yummy flat white of course:

will had huevos rancheros, which he highly recommended.

we then walked to newmarket and i had a look in a few designer shops. we also went into smith and caugheys (the big department store) and i was so unimpressed with the size- very puny compared to ballantynes in christchurch!! only later walking down queen st did i realise it wasn’t the main branch haha. smooth anna.

the weather wasn’t all that nice on saturday – cloudy and rainy but still quite warm (which i’m told is typical auckland weather). so we decided to give the art gallery a visit, and had the loveliest time! i especially enjoyed the chartwell collection which is contemporary art – i know a lot of people regard that stuff as a bit of a yarn (hey, here’s a splodge of paint on a canvas, one hundred k please) but i really enjoy a lot of it – when it’s good, it’s really really good! ugh, take me to MoMA in nyc already!!

another really cool thing was the cubic structural evolution project, by the artist olafur eliasson. it’s quite simple but such a cool concept. thousands of ivory white lego bricks are heaped on a long table, and the visitors to the gallery are invited to build towers with it. what emerges is a cityscape of all these different towers, growing from the rubble. no two projects will be alike, due to the different people who make it. it made me think of chch and all the new growth and building after the earthquake, which was probably why it resonated with me so much. we sat and built our own wee constructions for about half an hour – here’s hoping more people will come along and build on them and make them as tall as the others :)

^^my masterpiece – i felt like it has temple run vibes, no?
on sunday we had stunning sunny weather so we took the bus to mission bay. what a gorgeous beach! there was this guy just starting up a beach tennis business and he invited us to play for free since he wanted to attract paying customers! it was so fun, i just wore my bikini with a singlet top over it and we had a lot of fun jumping and diving trying to get the ball over the net!

we had a scrummy breakfast in mission bay cafe – i neglected to get a photo but it was great! and clearly a popular spot.

besides that just sat and sunbathed and had the odd swim, and read my book – cloud atlas by david mitchell. not 100% sure how i feel about it at this stage … watch this space!

upon getting back to the central city in the afternoon, we had an early dinner/late lunch of gourmet hot dogs from dogmatic. omg they were so good! i’m a total sucker for a good hot dog (or even an average one, not fussy haha), and these were supreme! i particularly enjoyed the BBB which was a beef sausage, bacon, caramelised onions and bbq sauce, but the classic american and chilli dog (not pictured) were beaut too (will had two, i’m not that greedy!!)

i got to practise my chinese with the server too, and he was very kind about it – how intelligible i was, i suspect, is another story..

the last thing we did, before hopping back on the plane, was to visit the cloud on the waterfront. this was controversially built for the 2011 rugby world cup. the name comes from the Maori name for new zealand, Aotearoa, meaning land of the long white cloud.
we thought it was pretty groovy in the flesh, and so had to take a good photo for insta ;)

hope you managed to get to the end of my rambles without dropping off! i’ll have a recipe for you next time – a gluten and dairy free dessert (i know, who even am i ;)